gannets – bass rock – graphite – 29.7 x 42 cms (A3)

Not so easy to get out to the islands these days and this year we only managed to get on the Bass rock for about an hour. We split into 2 groups leaving from Dunbar harbour with people sketching kittiwakes whilst waiting for the boat.

kittiwakes – dunbar – graphite – 29.7 x 42 cms (A3)

Last year one of the pivotal moments of the course was 2 hours circling the Bass on the large boat ‘Sula bassana’.  This seemed to really focus everyone and there was a great sense of people working away intensely with everything whirling around the vortex of concentration.

gannets – bass rock – graphite – 29.7 x 42 cms (A3)

This year the second boatload had about a quarter of an hour offshore giving the first group a bit more time to sketch before swapping over and letting us land to have our hour with the gannets.. The time working from the boat seemed like a warm up ‘quick pose’ session to get in training for the hour ashore which passed in no time.
The volume and quality of work produced in a very short time, with lots of people making huge advances prompted us to do timed drawing exercises the next day.  Amazing that we’d never thought to do it before (it is a staple of life drawing classes)… the results were generally exciting and in some cases it hardly seemed credible how much people could get on paper in 30 seconds. (see this post)

gannets – bass rock – graphite – 29.7 x 42 cms (A3)